Bittern at last!

Being back from university for the inter-semester break, I took the opportunity to spend a day at Willington. I arrived in the dark hoping to see the ringtail Hen Harrier that has been present in recent weeks leave the roost, half an hour before sunset at around 7:30. The roost is in the trees in the southern corner of the main lake, out of the left window of the hide. At least 24 Little Egrets were in the roost but unfortunately no sign of the Hen Harrier leaving nor did it hunt over the reedbeds on the far side of the lake like it has recently. This means that it hasn’t been seen for around a week now, despite people looking, so I’d be interested to know where else it roosts and hunts - it‘s surely in the area somewhere because it spent around a month in November 2019 at Willington and then presumably the same one reappeared two weeks ago.
I did find Shelduck, Curlew, Sparrowhawk and Goosander from the hide though, along with the usual selection of ducks and best of all Willow Tit on the feeders. Willington is such a reliable site for these scarce birds especially in late winter/early spring - I saw at least 4 birds here today both here and along the canal at High Bridge GPs and they were very vocal in general. The Oystercatcher count has risen to 3 birds which was nice to see.

Recently, the Bittern tends to be seen in these reeds between the hide and Platform 2

Heading back to the car, a quick stop at Platform 2 was a great decision as a Bittern immediately flew up out of the reeds right in front of the platform and gave a close fly by as it dropped back into the reeds on the left. One of the main targets in the bag! Lots of Snipe were seen today and at least 9 flew past the platform while waiting for the Bittern to reappear. Jack Snipe is thought to be regular at Willington but it’s usually only ever seen during reedbed management, being the secretive birds that they are.

Although extremely distant, this Sparrowhawk gave nice perched views for around half an hour

I headed round to Egginton village where a short walk added only Rook to the year list and failed to produce any of the exciting species seen here a few weeks ago. I did see several Raven though, one of which was very vocal and looked like it had a territory in an isolated copse of trees.
High Bridge GPs was a lot more productive - several hundred Wigeon, double figures of Teal and smaller numbers of Pochard, Tufted Duck and Gadwall were seen on the various pools along with Oystercatcher and a nice Redshank which was new for the year.

Now afternoon, I went to check out the fields north of Newton Solney - this area is just over the River Trent from High Bridge GPs but frustratingly only accessed from the South via Burton-on-Trent or Repton which means at least a 10 minute drive from High Bridge, so I don’t visit this area often. I walked along the riverside footpath past the confluence of the River Trent and the River Dove, seeing Goosander and Little Grebe on the river. From here you get a nice vista of the surrounding farmland and the Hen Harrier has been seen here recently. No sign today, nor of a reported Merlin. I thought maybe a group of swans in the fields to the south might harbour 2 Whooper Swans that were on the lake at Willington a few days ago but they too failed to materialise. The area was quiet so I didn’t walk as far as the pipe bridge but this turned out to be a big mistake, as a drake Smew was reported the following day from the pipe bridge looking North-west towards High Bridge GPs so I certainly won’t neglect this area next time!
I finished the day on 62 species another really healthy list for this small local site - this took the patch year list to 75. Most of the winter specialities have been seen now so the next big list boost will probably have to wait until the spring.